England head coach Stuart Lancaster hopes to harness the experience of Great Britain's Olympic heroes to bolster his side's bid to win the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Lancaster is aware the expectation and pressure on England to deliver on home soil will be immense and he hopes to gain a crucial insight into how so many of Britain's Olympians rose to the occasion in London earlier this year.

"There will be huge pressure of expectation, but there will be a huge groundswell of support as well," Lancaster told The Guardian. "What the Olympians did really well, though, was deal with the pressure and deliver. That is going to be our challenge.

"I'll speak to them about managing the tournament and about managing the expectation and delivering, because that's ultimately what they did.

"Sir Clive Woodward is one of many I'll speak to and I'm going to be meeting Dave Brailsford before Christmas. In terms of what he achieved with the cycling he is another superb example and you draw upon as much experience, and from as many people, as you can. But equally, you have got to have a clear vision yourself.

"The reality is we have decided upon a direction. I do like to draw upon other people's experience but I like to take my own decisions. We're now seeing a new team emerging as we build towards 2015.

"We've been handed a difficult draw, with Australia and Wales in our pool, and I guess that's fate. But where would you prefer it to be? You'd want it to be here in England because of the support we'll get. It's a very exciting prospect."